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My tips on preparing for a lawn
In 2004 I moved to a cottage in Goldsithney with a largish garden. Unfortunately it was all in a complete mess both from the effects of a flock of chickens and from out of control weeds up to three feet high. I started on the area to the side of the house and got Paul (highly recommended) of GLS (General Land Services, Ashton) with a digger to level the area and then got Cornwall Garden Services in to make a lawn. Well that was a poor job and the story is here.
when I decided to start on the back garden I got quotes from three different firms for Turfing the whole area. It's about 460 square metres and with turf somewhere around £2.25 per sq metre+ vat that's £1200 to start with. Prices quoted ranged from £2400 to over £4000! By the time these firms had come along to quote for the job I had already got Paul (GLS) in to first spray the entire area to kill all the weeds and bits of grass and then return a week later with his digger to roughly level the whole lot.
The preparation, if done properly , requires an equal amount of work for turfing or seeding and when I realised that the cost of seed would not be more than £75 I decided to do the job myself. I bought a little Alko rotavator for £250 and marked out a small 30 sq metre area. In three weeks back in May 2005 I had a nice green lawn so I felt confident to do the whole myself. I set it out in managable sections; the first photos here show an area 64 sq m and this is the story.
Firts you must kill and remave all weeds and old grass if applicable. Then rotavate to a depth of about 3 inches. My soil contained loads of stones and I removed as many of these as I could by raking. I had a another job going - a conservatory base that needed a lot of fill before concreting the base, so I lost them all in there.
22nd July. In this photo I'm using my home-made "blake" which is a cross between a rake and a blade! It's great for final levelling when an ordinary rake just keeps bringing up more and more stones. It'a about a metre of 75mm x 20mm timber screwed to an old hoe. I seriously suggest you make one. Also shown is the invaluable length of medium heavy rope. Apart from being useful for marking out areas - and curved paths - If you stand back a little and look along it it's great for showing up dips and bumps in the ground you are levelling. I,ve also found that a length of decent quality, non kinking, garden hose is just as good and of course if you have to go out and buy it is likely to be more useful afterwards!
A roller is really neccessary but they are remarkably expensive to buy. This one is made from and old polythene container and it's filled with concrete. Then rounded ends of this one are not deal as it limits how close I can go to an obstruction or edge but it does the job!! A light roll is all thats needed to consolidate the surface but don't roll it too much or the seed won't take.
Below I've marked out the area in one metre squares in readiness for sowing the seed. I've done this with a five metre length of 50mm x 25mm roofing batten and a builders trowel. I reckon thisis easier than marking outwith string and pegs.You can also see in the picture a one metre length of timber that I used as a measure; much easier than carrying a tape measure around.
The surface will need a final "scrath" before sowing the seed and for this I used a grass rake - the ones with a spread of spring steel tynes. If you have the facilities (welding for example) an angle creayted at the lower end will allow all of the tynes to contact the surface whilst the handle is presented at a comfortable ange. .It does bring up a few small stones that were otherwise flattened into the surface but nowhere near as many as a normal rake would have.
Tuesday 2nd August. Just over two weeks on and the grass
is growing well. The first fuzz is also showing on the next section. The
grass in the foreground is the 30 sq metre trial area that is now two
months old and is quite a nice lawn.
It's now 31st August and the fourth section has been seeded for a couple of weeks. But the very hot dry weather has slowed the germination and things are only just starting to happen.
June 2006 and the grass is flat and reasonable weed free. I'm very happy with it but have now started on the other half of the garden.
Well it's now November 2006 and the rest of the back garden has been seeded. This years it was nowhere as easy because of the near zero rainfall during September - when I was otherwise ready to seed. At the beginning of October, after a little rain, I worked hard to scratch up the hard baked ground. It was exhausting work! But later in the day that I finally seeded it there was a fall of torential rain and I could only watch as the seed was washed down the garden in the 'rivers' that resulted. Not only was the seed washed down but the hard won surface tilth went as well! So you must always check the forecast better than I did as the resulting work, hampered by more heavy rain, kept me hard at work on this project for much of October. Fortunately November was mild and there was a fair degree of sunshine, so the seeds did eventually germinate reasonably well. But the lawn is a bit patchy and will require a more work next spring.
......I could only watch as the seed was washed down the garden in the
'rivers' that resulted.......
The practice I used last year of marking out the area in one square metre squares and shaking out a measured amount of seed, was not used this time. It 's very time consuming and I have found it be be an unnneccesary complication. This time I marked out one square and spread the recommended amout of seed (by weight). I just remembered what this looked like and then used an empty "feed and weed" container to quickly cover the whole area achieving the same 'look'. It worked fine and because of having to seed much of the area two or three times (because of the rain mentioned above) I saved a lot of time.
One problem I've had this year has also been caused by the rain - wormcasts!
The little blighters come to the surface when it's wet and leave little
mounds of loose earth where the seed immediately starts to germinate.
If left they would have resulted in a lumpy surface so I often went around
stamping them flat. It seems to have worked
last modified 3rd June 2006